


a heart of gold

by fiveyaaas



Series: open your heart [2]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Awkward Crush, Awkwardness, Childhood Friends, Crushes, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff without Plot, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, but not enough to tag it, implied benfiveya, this is 1k of fiveya headcanons let’s be real
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-14 13:01:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29171523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fiveyaaas/pseuds/fiveyaaas
Summary: “heart of gold:a kind and generous disposition”
Relationships: Number Five | The Boy/Vanya Hargreeves
Series: open your heart [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2138898
Comments: 2
Kudos: 32





	a heart of gold

**Author's Note:**

  * For [JjdoggieS](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JjdoggieS/gifts).



They were twelve years old when it had hit him, why she was different to him. She’d been cast aside so long ago to ever possibly capture Sir Reginald’s heart, and, as much pain as she’d experienced from it, it had let her form into something that didn’t exist to compete, didn’t exist to be the best. Vanya was simply just somebody that wanted to be included, and he hadn’t ever had the heart to exclude her. When he became her best friend, it had been more to piss off Reginald, to say, ‘I’ve found something great that you have actively discouraged, so clearly you’re wrong about a lot of things.’

As time stretched on, though, he realized being friends with her was the greatest thing within his life (not that there were even many _ just good _ things, let alone great things), and he would never have as wonderful of a friend as Vanya. It was as she was patching him up, secretly handing him a peanut-butter-and-marshmallow sandwich when nobody was looking, telling him with a small smile that she knew he got hungry when he teleported a lot, that it hit him. She was  _ kind.  _ He liked her so much because she was  _ kind,  _ in a way that just didn’t exist within their family, outside of Ben. It made sense why he favored them, even though he knew he wasn’t all that kind himself. Though sometimes he wished he was nicer, so he could be on their level. 

“Thank you,” Five told her, quirking his brows and smiling at her with as much gentleness as he could muster, knowing that she was prone to sensitivity. “It was very sweet of you to think of me, V.”

“You nearly passed out last time,” she muttered, glancing down. Her hand was trembling, and he got the idea that she was feeling the slightest bit faint herself. “Do the bandages feel okay?”

“They feel amazing.”

A shocked little giggle left her throat, and Five’s stomach fluttered at the noise, confusing him. He opened his mouth, about to ask her why she was laughing, but then she asked, voice light, “You feel amazing after being injured?”

_ “Oh.” _ His ears started to heat up. “No, I meant just that… you’re really good at patching me up.”

He wanted to crawl into a ditch and live there for a few years, but then she smiled at him and all of the awkward, confusing feelings flitting through him were worth it. 

“I enjoy patching you up,” she said, squeezing his hand. “You’re so patient when you get injured. It’s weird to see you not scowling.”

For reasons entirely separate to what Vanya had said, Five wondered if he scowled too much. Thankfully, she never saw him during training, considering the fact that he was… even less agreeable when he was practicing with his powers. “I’m actually nice to you,” he said defensively. As nice as he was capable of, he supposed. “But, uh, thank you.” He was  _ not  _ only saying that because he didn’t want her to think that he was a jerk. “For everything.”

“No problem. Hey, would you be able to…” She glanced both ways, trying to make sure that nobody was listening in to their conversation. When nobody so much as tipped their head in their direction. “Would you be able to come to my room tonight? And bring the book you and Ben were talking about?” 

He and Ben had a system, where Ben would find a book that she would like, and he would grab the book for her. For a pretty long time, she’d read with the moonlight that illuminated her room from the small window by her bed, but he’d recently gotten her a nightlight, hoping that it would keep her from straining her eyes too much. She’d just recently finished the stack of books they’d gotten her last month, and he’d grabbed a few from the public library during their most recent mission, having been given a slip of paper from Ben. Usually, when he took them from the library he’d return them, knowing that Vanya got upset if he just stole them. 

“Yeah, I’ll be there.” Some nights, he’d sleep over in her bed. They’d often get in trouble for holding hands or hugging if they were caught, and it was nice that he could hug her or hold her hand when they shared a bed, not worried that they’d get caught because he’d figured out how to mess with the footage that stayed in their room a while back. “Does your book light still work?”

“Yeah, thank you for getting one for me, by the way.”

“No problem.” He sat up, hopping off the infirmary bed and forcing down the urge to wince as he realized the movement had reopened his wound. Hiding his arm behind his back and away from her vision, knowing she’d freak out if she saw it bleeding again, he added, “We get to have an extra thirty minutes of free time today, Seven, since the mission went well. You want to spend it together?”

Likely, they would really get somewhere around two extra hours of free time, considering the fact that Diego had been injured pretty awfully. They’d closed the curtains before Vanya had gotten inside, and he was thankful for it, not wanting her to know how awful the mission had been. Five hadn’t let on why Grace had been occupied, just vaguely saying that Diego’s injury had been a little worse. It was better that she not be exposed to the more awful parts of their life, for as long as she possibly could. 

“That sounds great!” She beamed at him, and he ignored the guilt that had trudged up from hiding these things from her. While on one hand he really didn’t want her to know many details of the more gruesome things he experienced, he also had once promised her that he would keep no secrets from her, that they would always be honest with one another. He wasn’t entirely certain if omitting details was still lying, though, and he didn’t intend to try to figure that out. 

“Let’s go,” he said, trying to clear his mind and offering a smile. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading!!!! 💕


End file.
